At a luxury spa in Tucson, Arizona, a select group of participants undergo a series of diagnostic tests, from sleep screening and glucose monitoring to comprehensive musculoskeletal evaluations and ultrasounds.
It doesn’t sound relaxing at all. But the four-day “retreat” organized by US wellness company Canyon Ranch is one of a growing number of getaways by executives looking to bring a scientific edge to their stress-busting efforts.
Its $20,000 “Longevity8 program” will offer access to doctors, dietitians and performance scientists, who will provide participants with more than 200 “biomarkers” to create a snapshot of their health.
Mark Rivers, a 59-year-old Texan who joined Canyon Ranch as CEO last year after a career of high-stress jobs in hospitality and real estate development, recently attended the test event ahead of the program’s official launch this month. He left knowing that he was not sleeping well, that he was not well hydrated, and that having more hobbies would help him “find balance and emotional clarity.”
“Like many people, I have been guilty of looking for a quick fix; Quickly lose eight pounds, get in shape for ski season, fast in the morning, play this app to sleep better,” says Rivers. “Now I see that I can be more intentional about my work-life balance and I have some tools to help.”
In the UK, stress and other work-related mental health problems will cost businesses more than £57 billion in lost productivity in 2023, according to the latest report. Axa study.
Executive retreats have long attempted to provide a tonic for high-level entrepreneurs who may be experiencing the effects of burnout and stress. What has changed is the ability of doctors to identify the repercussions of living in a high-stress environment.
Since 2021, biometric screenings have also formed a central part of “reboot retreats” at the 11,000-acre Goodwood House estate in the West Sussex countryside. At their most recent three-day residential residency, participants were invited to use an app to create a baseline for sleep quality, fitness, and stress recovery rates, among other key health indicators.
The detailed health audit amounted to “an annual technical inspection,” says Julie Stokes, a clinical psychologist and executive coach at U.K.-based Preston Associates, who helped design the recall. Attendees also enjoyed information-packed talks from experts on nutrition, work-life balance and other aspects of stress-free living, as well as more good old-fashioned pampering. When they returned home, they continued using the app to monitor their vital statistics, providing Goodwood doctors with a range of data for a consultation or follow-up visit.
Stokes also offers customized health tracking services for executives and uses the app herself. She says it helped her realize the effects stress was having on her body. “Although I have a somewhat agile and zigzag brain, I don’t have many visible symptoms of stress. “That’s why it’s surprising to me to see compelling evidence in my heart rate variability.”
These retreats make attendees feel more relaxed and also better prepare them to spot stress triggers in the future, Stokes says.
Canyon Ranch applies the same logic, Rivers says: “We take great pride in giving people a road map. ‘Try this, do this, focus on this.’”
Not all retreat providers are so focused on science. The Craigberoch Business Decelerator, taking place on the remote Isle of Bute off the west coast of Scotland, for example, is designed to counteract the technology-focused, “always-on” work life. Attendees spend a week immersed in distinctively low-tech activities: journaling; beach hairstyle; walks in the forest; songs around the campfire; Even Scottish country dancing.
“The idea was to get away from the hectic day-to-day of my regular job and just reflect a little bit on what’s possible and where my true passions are,” says Nataliia Kushnir, a Google sales leader who recently took the ferry to Bute for a reboot.
Gib Bulloch, founder of Craigberoch, explains that the retreat format is based on empirical research into the physical and neurological benefits of close contact with nature.
He references a Stanford University study that revealed a 60 percent increase in people’s creativity when walking outdoors. Another research article showed that a regular 20 to 30-minute “nature experience” can reduce levels of salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase (two physiological biomarkers of stress) by more than 20 percent.
“We don’t use heavy metrics,” Bulloch says. “But anecdotally, we’ve had people look at their own health statistics and see markers like their biological age drop by 10 years over the course of a week.”
Regardless of how a withdrawal is structured, a key question is how long your benefits last. Like the post-holiday glow, they can fade quickly.
Some retreat providers are trying to solve this problem by offering tips for dealing with stress in the long term. Some go further and seek to use the change of scenery to provoke attendees to more deeply question their work habits and perspectives.
Reboot, for example, run by a US-based coaching service that specializes in “radical self-inquiry”, offers multi-day boot camps aimed at helping senior executives.
A big part of the process centers on asking tough questions about your inherited belief systems and the social expectations that drive your behavior, says Reboot co-founder Jerry Colonna, a former venture capitalist turned leadership coach.
Nathan Barry, CEO of Kit, an operating platform for the creative industry, credits one of Reboot’s two-day retreats in Colorado with helping him become “more deliberate” and confident as a leader.
“It was less about understanding the tactics of how to run or operate a business, and more about really seeing, ‘Oh, these are the deep, underlying reasons why I do things the way I do them,’” he says.
Ryan Renteria, executive coach and author of the book Lead without exhaustion, He organizes two-day mini-breaks for a group of CEOs recruited from a monthly peer group he coordinates.
Rentería’s excursions, set in bucolic places like Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe, aim to strike a balance between pseudoscience and “going to a monastery and staring into space for 12 hours.”
The first day focuses primarily on “grouping” stressors and discussing how to resolve them, while the second day prioritizes “deep strategic thinking” on how to maximize business opportunities.
“It’s not about going out in the middle of nowhere with someone who may or may not know what they’re doing,” he says, noting that “everyone here is going through similar things on a personal and professional level.”
Regularly returning to this sense of collective experience can help the benefits last longer. Some participants find that an occasional phone call or meeting with other attendees can refresh the knowledge gained at a retreat.
René Carayol, a British executive coach, recalls a “very powerful” example when guests were asked to consider how they might be remembered by writing their own funeral eulogy and reading it aloud.
“Afterwards, people talk regularly. They meet. In some ways, this connection becomes even more important than the retreat itself,” he says.
Back at Canyon Ranch, and inspired by his biomarkers, Rivers plans to get back to biking and rowing, take up a racquet sport, practice meditation and perfect his bedtime breathing rituals. Apparently, de-stressing is a job in itself.